“ An insolvent law is an act occasionally passed for the relief of the body of the debtor. A bankrupt law, as distinguished from an insolvent law, is a general law, by which all the property of the debtor is taken and divided among his creditors, and he discharged from his debts, and made, as it is sometimes said, a new man. But if this be not a bankrupt law, then it may remain in force, if congress should exercise its power. Would then the laws on the subject of bankruptcy be uniform? It is impossible to believe, that the convention meditated such an absurdity. ”

“ This would not be more unreasonable, than what is pretended to be done in the case of the living man, whose contract you make to be, that he will, at all events, be able to pay; you make it an insurance against accident, against misfortune, against irresistible force, widewasting calamity, inevitable necessity; against the decrees and acts of God himself. Let, then, the rule of interpretation, as to insolvent laws, be the common sense of mankind, the universal agreement of those who have been affected, who may be affected by them. A whole nation, on such a subject, cannot be in the wrong. ”

“ The existence of the power of granting relief, in the extremities produced by debt and indigence, is morally necessary, not only to the well-being, but to the existence of civilized and commercial society; and if one authority in a nation divests itself of this, by a grant to another authority, it imposes its exercise as a duty on that other; and if the one does not exercise it, the other, by necessity, must. The power, in this sense, remains concurrent. This principle may be illustrated by an analogous question of international law. ”

“ Congress has not the power to pass a general insolvent law; the states have a power to pass state insolvent laws; the objects and spheres of legislation are different; congress has power to pass a bankrupt law, and if it does, that will be paramount. Having safely possessed ourselves of this ground, we may ascend a little higher. We are justified in saying, that the states are not prohibited from passing even bankrupt laws. They once had the power, and they gave away, in conjunction with the other states, only that of passing uniform laws of bankruptcy throughout the United States. ”

“ Is a bankrupt law, a law impairing the obligation of contracts, within the meaning of the constitution? We insist, that a bankrupt law, so far from being considered as a law impairing the obligation of contracts, ought to be regarded as a mode of enforcing the performance of contracts. The first object of a bankrupt system is to enforce and secure the rights of creditors, to save them from the consequences of fraudulent and secret conveyances of the debtors ”

“ When the constitution declares, that 'congress shall have power to pass uniform laws,' it implies, that none but uniform laws shall exist: that congress alone shall establish a bankrupt system, and that this system shall be uniform. One of the principal motives for adopting the constitution was to raise the credit of the country, by establishing a national government, with adequate powers to redress the grievances of foreigners, instead of compelling them to rely upon the capricious and contradictory legislation of the several states. ”

“ Some of the United States are, from their situation, habits and pursuits, commercial: others are agricultural. To the one, a system of bankruptcy may be very convenient, if not essential; to the other, such a system may not only be unnecessary, but ruinous. Hence, the difficulty which was foreseen, and is now felt, of establishing any uniform system, to pervade the Union, and hence would have been the manifest impropriety of taking from the states all power of legislating upon the subject, and vesting that power exclusively in congress. ”

“ The impossibility of payment discharges from contracts, as insanity does from crimes: 'Impossibilium,' says even the severe Bynkershoek, 'nulla est obligatio.' To impair means, as to individuals, you shall not pay less; you shall not have an extension of time in which to pay; you shall not pay in goods, when your contract is cash; you shall not pay in depreciated coin, or even current bank-notes, when your contract binds you to the payment of pure coin; interest shall not be diminished: in fine, there shall be no alleviation of its terms, or mitigation of its conditions. ”

“ The only other mode in which congress could secure the country against the evils of numerous and inconsistent bankrupt laws, would be, by establishing a uniform bankrupt law, against its own opinions and judgment. If the states have the power contended for, when congress does not exercise the authority vested in it, then congress must keep up a continual claim, by maintaining, at all times, a bankrupt system, which it thinks inexpedient, for the purpose of preventing the evils and confusion that spring from various laws on such a subject. ”

“ Yet, the opinion, that this law is not within the prohibition of the constitution has been entertained by those who are entitled to great respect, and has been supported by arguments which deserve to be seriously considered. It has been contended, that as a contract can only bind a man to pay to the full extent of his property, it is an implied condition that he may be discharged on surrendering the whole of it. But it is not true, that the parties have in view only the property in possession when the contract is formed, or that its obligation does not extend to future acquisitions. ”

“ But a still more satisfactory answer to this argument is, that the convention did not intend to prohibit the passage of all insolvent laws. To punish honest insolvency, by imprisonment for life, and to make this a constitutional principle, would be an excess of inhumanity, which will not readily be imputed to the illustrious patriots who framed our constitution, nor to the people who adopted it. The distinction between the obligation of a contract, and the remedy given by the legislature to enforce that obligation, has been taken at the bar, and exists in the nature of things. ”

“ If the time of performance is not enlarged, the obligation of performance is entirely dispensed with; which is a still greater infringement of his rights. It is said, that imprisonment for debt is not a common-law remedy for the non-performance of contracts, and makes no part of their obligation. Be it so: but the responsibility of the debtor as to his property is coeval with the common law, and exists in every other system of jurisprudence. It is the fund to which the creditor has a natural right to resort for payment. ”

“ The state wants the services of its citizens, to fight its battles on the land and ocean, to cultivate its fields, to enlarge its industry, to promote its prosperity, to signalize its fame. It does not want a heartless, purposeless, mindless being-but half a man-a worse than slave; it wants a citizen, with all his worth and all his energies of body, mind and soul. The line of distinction drawn by the opposite counsel, between bankrupt and insolvent laws, is wholly mistaken. ”

“ When the sages of the convention inserted this clause in our constitution, they meant no more, or less, than the inviolability of contracts; and what system of religious faith nor of ethics, or of jurisprudence, ever meant less? But they likewise meant, that this salutary, but universal principle, should be subjected to the salutary and indispensable exceptions to it, which always had prevailed, and always must prevail. Every contract must be subjected to, limited, and interpreted by, the law of nature, which everywhere forms a part, and the best part, of the municipal code ”

“ Whenever the terms in which a power is granted to congress, or the nature of the power, require that it should be exercised exclusively by congress, the subject is as completely taken from the state legislatures, as if they had been expressly forbidden to act on it. ”

“ We are not allowed to say so, because it is expressly provided, that no state shall 'emit bills of credit;' neither could these words be intended to restrain the states from enabling debtors to discharge their debts by the tender of property of no real value to the creditor, because for that subject also particular provision is made. Nothing but gold and silver coin can be made a tender in payment of debts. It remains to inquire, whether the prohibition under consideration could be intended for the single case of a law directing that judgments should be carried into execution by instalments? ”

“ In speaking of the state of suspension or denial of payment, we say, bankrupt; that is, a merchant who, committing certain acts, gives evidence, that he is criminally disinclined to pay, and who may nevertheless not be insolvent: or, we say, an insolvent; any man who is at once poor and in prison; who surrenders all he has; pays as far as he can; and who, from the absolute want of means, is physically incompetent to pay more. ”

“ From the exercise of any of these powers, the states are neither expressly, nor by any fair rule of construction, excluded. To levy and collect taxes and excises, is a power given to congress. Is it taken from the individual states? If it were, the state governments must have expired at the moment the general government came into existence. Without the power of levying and collecting taxes, no government can exist. If this power to levy and collect taxes and excises, which is given to congress, be not an exclusive power, why should the others be so? ”

“ If, as we think, it must be admitted, that this intention might actuate the convention; that it is not only consistent with, but is apparently manifested by, all that part of the section which respects this subject; that the words used are well adapted to the expression of it; that violence should be done to their plain meaning, by understanding them in a more limited sense; those rules of construction, which have been consecrated by the wisdom of ages, compel us to say, that these words prohibit the passage of any law discharging a contract, without performance. ”

“ Every creditor knows he is liable to be paid only so far forth as the property of a distressed debtor, on a legal and bon a fide surrender, can pay. The universal consent of the nation and its public authorities is strongly shown by the practice of congress itself, whose privileges, it is said, the states are usurping. According to the argument on the other side, congress, in the only bankrupt law it ever passed, impaired the obligation of contracts, since it made the discharge of the debtor referrible to past as well as future contracts. ”

“ As to insolvencies, congress connot exercise it; as to bankruptcies, they refuse; the states, therefore, must exercise this power. The obligations of natural law, and the injunctions of our religion, which religion is a part of our common law, impose it as a duty, that the wants of the poor should be relieved. Strange, indeed, is it, that the laws should, at the same moment, press upon society two duties, so inconsistent and contradictory, as that of exacting for the payment of his debts, what the impoverished and imprisoned debtor has not ”

“ But if, in any case, the plain meaning of a provision, not contradicted by any other provision in the same instrument, is to be disregarded, because we believe the framers of that instrument could not intend what they say, it must be one in which the absurdity and injustice of applying the provision to the case, would be so monstrous, that all mankind would, without hesitation, unite in rejecting the application. ”

“ For instance, congress may emit bills of credit. But the matter is different in a moral prohibition. Congress have no more right to impair the obligation of a contract than the states [5] It is a preposterous presumption, that congress meant, by its bankrupt law, to violate the injunction of the constitution, when they left they payment of debts, according to the undeviating course of the civilized world, to be discharged out of the surrendered estate, rather than by the imprisoned person of the debtor; communis error facit jus. ”

“ To a person unacquainted with the nature, power and extent of our political institutions, before and at the time the constitution of the United States was formed and established, many parts of it would be wholly unintelligible, and no proper construction could be given to it, without bearing in mind the political condition of the people who ordained and established it. Citizens of separate and independent governments, they adopted this constitution, not because they had no government, but because they had several governments ”

“ If, in the opinion of congress, uniform laws concerning bankruptcies ought not to be established, it does not follow, that partial laws may not exist, or that state legislation on the subject must cease. It is not the mere existence of the power, but its exercise, which is incompatible with the exercise of the same power by the states. ”

“ This concurrent power of the states, from a similar, though less imperative necessity, exists in various other cases. Congress has the whole power of regulating commerce with foreign nations. The most important medium of foreign commerce, is foreign bills of exchange, which are, therefore, important subjects of commercial regulation. There can hardly be imagined a duty more incumbent on congress, than this exercise of its admitted power of legislation. ”

“ It would seem difficult to substitute words which are more intelligible, or less liable to misconstruction, than those who are to be explained. A contract is an agreement, in which a party undertakes to do, or not to do, a particular thing. The law binds him to perform his undertaking, and this is, of course, the obligation of his contract. In the case at bar, the defendant has given his promissory note to pay the plaintiff a sum of money, on or before a certain day. ”